1. Statement of the Technical Field
The present invention relates to systems and methods for connecting network resources of a first network to network resources of a second network that is different from the first network. More particularly, the present invention relates to systems and methods for connecting a network resource with a Transfer Capabilities Application Part (TCAP) interface to a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) based network resource.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, there has been a significant effort to develop a standard architecture and set of interfaces for components in a telecommunication service provider's next generation network. Various solutions exist for interfacing components in the telecommunication service provider's next generation network. A first solution generally involves connecting an SIP application server to a legacy network element comprising a Signaling System Number Seven (SS7) ISDN User Part (ISUP) interface. ISUP messages are passed from the legacy network element to the SIP application server by appending them to the relevant SIP messages. This solution works well for ISUP messages because the ISUP and SIP messages are both session related messages. Also, ISUP messages cleanly map to SIP messages. However, this solution provides undesirable results for passing non-session related messages to the SIP application server.
A second solution generally involves extracting key parameters of a TCAP message. Thereafter, the extracted key parameters are passed to the SIP application server in an SIP message header or an SIP Uniform Resource Identifier (URI). Despite the advantages of this solution, it suffers from certain drawbacks. For example, this solution is not programmable because it relies on a predetermined mapping for each TCAP application.
A third solution generally involves setting up an SIP session specifically for passing non-session related TCAP messages to the SIP application server. Despite the advantages of this solution, it suffers from certain drawbacks. For example, this solution requires at least six (6) SIP messages to set up and end each session. The six (6) messages include an INVITE message, a TRYING message, a first OK message, an ACK message, and a BYE message, and a second OK message. Each of the listed messages are well known to those having ordinary skill in the art. These six (6) messages are an overhead on top of the additional messages and responses required to actually pass the required information between two (2) systems. As a result of the six (6) message requirement, the third solution is an inefficient solution. The inefficiency of the third solution may prohibit its use in certain application due to the latency of establishing the session.